Being Human

Data entering our senses is processed by our consciousness. Consciousness is the processing of the sensory data and forming it into a mental "world." For example, when we take in visual data of a TREE and then experience the associated mental perceptions, we are seeing the tree. The perception is an object in our consciousness. In other words, we see reality by experiencing the perceptual units of mental consciousness that are produced by our minds. Our consciousness of the tree is an output of the sensory input.

Again, we see a tree when we experience the mental recreation of the tree.

Most animals can do this. But humans evolved ONE MORE THING. At some point, we evolved the ability to not just experience our mental tree. We also began to experience the experience ITSELF. We could see the tree, but we could also see that we could see the tree.